Madadgaar National Helpline celebrates Telecom & Child Helpline Day

Posted about 2 years ago| Onepakistannews

QUETTA : International Telecom Day was celebrated as the day of International Child Helpline day across the world and it is the global occasion for child helplines to call attention to their work in protecting and empowering children and young people. International Child Helpline Day started in 2007 and is being celebrated in 2013 across the globe for the seventh consecutive year.

Madadgaar National Helpline organized a workshop for empowering youth on Gender-based violence with the support of Child Helpline International (CHI), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Plan International. In this male dominance society, male has to provide equal rights and space to female, otherwise violence will increase rapidly in our society.

Madadgaar National Helpline is part of a global network of child helplines Child Helpline International (CHI). This network includes 173 member child helplines in 142 countries worldwide, all gaining strength and support from one another. Since Madadgaar Helpline was founded in 2001, it has provided services to 24,739 clients of violence, whereas provided services through phone to 118,846 clients throughout the nation. (Database, 2001-2012).

She further added that information & archive department and Madadgaar can jointly make efforts to curb the violence in society.

Zia Ahmed Awan, founder of Madadgaar National Helpline emphasized on finding the root cause of prevailing problems in society related to gender-based violence. He said that we are living in patriarchal society and even small effort serve as an achievement for us. He said, we must not only focus on females but cater male population as well to sensitize them regarding the prevailing issues of gender-based violence that are finding new ways (cyber crime) with technological advancements . Apart from this, he also shared that bullying must be discouraged that affects mobility of women and makes living miserable.

The world has been now shifted to an era where use of technology is at its peak. The estimated youth population of Pakistan is approximately 63% of the total population. Telecommunication, being an important asset of the modern world has played a significant role in re-shaping the lives of people especially the youth of the globe.

Since we are living in an era of modern technology, Violation of human rights specifically Gender Based Violence (GBV) is quite rampant in the country which also contributes towards low indicators of human development.

According to Madadgaar National Helpline s data, 6218 women became the victims of violence in 2012 in Pakistan. Women being a vulnerable population, face a lot of violence and abuse. Some of the most significant reasons for its increase are rooted in feudal and tribal mindset of people and male dominance in society.